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Discerning   /dɪsˈərnɪŋ/   Listen
Discerning

adjective
1.
Having or revealing keen insight and good judgment.  "A discerning reader"  Antonym: undiscerning.
2.
Unobtrusively perceptive and sympathetic.  Synonym: discreet.  "A discreet silence"
3.
Quick to understand.  Synonym: apprehensive.
4.
Able to make or detect effects of great subtlety; sensitive.  "A discerning eye for color"


Discern

verb
(past & past part. discerned; pres. part. discerning)
1.
Detect with the senses.  Synonyms: distinguish, make out, pick out, recognise, recognize, spot, tell apart.  "I can't make out the faces in this photograph"



Related searches:
discernible
discernment


WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University


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"Discerning" Quotes from Famous Books



... did he know his theme, but he had the ability to explain it. He spoke without hesitation or embarrassment, and revealed the same splendid dignity that his father had shown, all flavored by the same dash of indifference for the auditor. But the discerning ones saw that he surpassed his father, in that he carried more reserve and showed a suavity that was not ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators • Elbert Hubbard
... of the house's interior was one of well-chosen but unostentatious comfort, and the materials and furnishings used were all so nicely adapted to their setting that only to more discerning eyes than those of the Stuarts' neighbours would they have expressed unusual ...
— Under the Country Sky • Grace S. Richmond
... perhaps say with another great man, "What must God be if He is pleased by things which simply displease His educated creatures?" In a country where the churches were once far more crowded than in Belgium, I was told by a discerning man, Prince Alexis Obolensky, a former Procurator of the Holy Synod, that all such devotion is simply superstition. He said he would gladly give me all Russia's spirituality if I could give him a tenth of England's moral earnestness. And ...
— Painted Windows - Studies in Religious Personality • Harold Begbie
... by long attrition tried, Placed by the purer metal's side, Displays at length a dingy hue, That proves its former claim untrue; So time's discerning hand hath art To set the ...
— The Two Guardians • Charlotte Mary Yonge
... supposed, that the difficulties of his employment, being means to shew his abilities, were gratefull to him; for he was every way qualified for busines; his naturall faculties being very strong and pregnant, his understanding, aided by a good phansy, made him quick in discerning the nature of any busines; and thro' a cold brain he became deliberate and of a sound judgement. His memory was great, and he made it greater by confiding in it. His elocution was very fluent, and it was a great part of his talent readily to reply, or freely ...
— Characters from 17th Century Histories and Chronicles • Various


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